Hester Street Cafe

Afternoon tea! Came here with a friend on Sunday for a relaxing girls’ tea. I had never been to the New Museum before so it was cool to check it out. The café is right off of the lobby of the museum and a super casual, frill-​free quiet spot to catch up. My friend and I decided to get the afternoon tea for two, which came with 2 pots of tea (we had Peppermint and Rosebud), 3 sandwiches (we picked the smoked salmon with dill, egg salad, and chicken salad), 2 scones with butter and apricot jam, 2 macarons, 2 slices of glazed lemon poppyseed cake, 2 brownies shaped like roses, and 2 cookies (one tasted like almond and one kind of tasted like rhubarb).
After a quick 10 minute wait, we received our tea and food. The tea was fantastic, though I could have used more of it. The rosebud was very light and good to start with and the peppermint was stronger and refreshing for the hot summer day. I could have easily drunken more of both teas. The sandwiches were also great. My favorite was the smoked salmon with dill, which I gobbled up way too quickly. I personally am not a fan of egg salad, though my friends who had come the previous week love the egg salad sandwich. The chicken salad was okay, but the ratio of bread to spread was a bit off and left me wanting a bit more chicken salad for my bread. The other pastries were just okay. I enjoyed the macarons because they were macarons and the almond cookie was tasty. The lemon poppyseed cake could have used a bit more flavor and the scone was too dry and also a bit bland. The brownie rosebuds pretty, but nothing out of the ordinary. I would have enjoyed a moister brownie, but I did like the shape. There is more than enough food for 2 people, that’s for sure, though if you sit there for as long as my friend and I did, you’ll eventually finish the pastries.
There were also many people who stopped by for lunch while we were there, which looked delicious. Although I prefer a more traditional ambiance for high tea, Hester Street Café was a relaxing experience and I would come back, maybe to try some sandwiches and salads next time.

My husband and I came here on a *free* HowAboutWe Couples date (if you like the sound of it, I can refer you!).
We got the afternoon tea for two, which is typically $ 35, but we got it absolutely free! We just walked in (no need to pay museum entrance fees) and informed the man behind the café counter about our reservation and he told us we could be seated, no messy paperwork or confirmations or anything!
Our tea for two included:
— 2 pots of tea. The pots are good for about 3 – 4 pours and they are nicely steeped BEFORE being served so that they are hot, but you won’t be burned on your first sip. They have 7 different flavors on the menu, but they were out of both the rosebud and jasmine the day we went. I tried the berry cream while my husband had the peppermint. We loved them both. Wonderful flavors.
— 6 full sized tea sandwiches in 3 «flavors.» You get two full sandwiches of each «flavor», but since everything is cut in half (and no crusts), you actually get 4 halves for each flavor, for a total of 12 sandwich halves. It’s a lot! We got tarragon chicken salad on wheat (very good), salmon and dill on white (delicious!), and egg salad on white (very good). Every single sandwich was good. The bread was moist (in a good way) and the fillings were cold and fresh tasting.
— 2 lemon poppyseed cakes with some sort of pink glaze. Moist & tasty.
— 2 «Black Dahlia» chocolate rose bundt cakes. My least favorite, although my husband liked them. Very faint chocolate flavor, almost indistinguishable. I think these had some kind of nuts in them, which we were not warned about. We have no nut allergies so it was fine, but I think some people might appreciate a little heads up.
— 2 macarons (ours were white chocolate peppercorn with passionfruit filling). While the texture of the macaron itself was okay, the flavor was not that great. I liked the filling though.
— 2 green tea shortbread cookies. My favorite! These were sandy and delicious. Perfect with the tea. I wish we could’ve had more.
— 2 sweet scones with butter & jam. These were kind of dry and uninspired.
Because our reservation was at 1pm, we had intended for this to be a light lunch, so we hadn’t eaten much beforehand and we still ended up feeling VERY full afterwards. We took our time though, and it was a very nice leisurely meal. Even thought we didn’t pay anything for it, I think that $ 35 for all the food they give you is a good deal.
General notes: The space is open so you can see some of the modern art, but the building space itself has a kind of «clean warehouse» vibe that didn’t exactly mesh with my idea of a typical tea. The also play some odd music, including something that sounded like it was in The Exorcist.

Came to Hester Street Café with my maid of honor for their recently added afternoon tea service through howaboutwe offer. We were allowed to choose two pots of tea (we went with camomile and berry crème) and served a beautifully assembled towers of sandwiches (our offer included all 4 types of sandwiches! aka better than regular deal), assorted baked goods and sweets.
Hester Street Café operates at the back section of New Museum and functions more of a self serve, quick bite eatery. It doesn’t have the ambiance of typical afternoon tea service one would find in the city. In fact, we had to share the table with a group of grade school students who were having a throw down on who can slam their water bottle louder. Without the promotion, I can see why/​how they would struggle to get anyone to pay for their regular tea service — it’s $ 32 normally — not really that much cheaper than the more renown ones like Alice’s tea cup minus the service and ambiance.
Onto the food! It actually took them a good 25 mins to assemble our tower of goodies. The sandwiches included smoked salmon, egg salad, chicken salad, and cucumber with dill cream cheese. Honestly they were your standard sandwiches with smoked salmon as my fav. The assorted baked goods and sweets included passionfruit macarons, lemon poppyseed pound cakes, rose shaped chocolate brownies, green tea biscuits, and berry scones. Everything was super tasty except the scones were a bit dry perhaps stale.
I’m a big fan of fruity tea and found their berry crème to be the perfect blend. My moh found her chamomile mild and soothing — perfect for her allergy irritated throat.
Would definitely return with the offer but for the regular price — no offense, I would perhaps spend my afternoon tea time/​money elsewhere. Serving myself just didn’t go right with the afternoon tea concept. Nevertheless still had a great time and would recommend others to check it out!